Surveillance and Resilience in Theory and Practice

Media and Communication, Vol 3, No 2 (Special Issue on Surveillance), Oct 2015 Forthcoming

32 Pages Posted: 19 Aug 2015

See all articles by Charles D. Raab

Charles D. Raab

University of Edinburgh

Richard Jones

University of Edinburgh, School of Law

Ivan Szekely

Eotvos Karoly Policy Institute; OSA Archivum

Date Written: August 17, 2015

Abstract

Surveillance is often used as a tool in resilience strategies towards the threat posed by terrorist attacks and other serious crime. “Resilience” is a contested term with varying and ambiguous meaning in governmental, business and social discourses, and it is not clear how it relates to other terms that characterise processes or states of being. Resilience is often assumed to have positive connotations, but critics view it with great suspicion, regarding it as a neo-liberal governmental strategy. However, we argue that surveillance, introduced in name of greater security, may itself erode social freedoms and public goods such as privacy, paradoxically requiring societal resilience, whether precautionary or in mitigation of the harms it causes to the public goods of free societies. This article develops new models and extends existing ones to describe resilience processes unfolding over time and in anticipation of, or in reaction to, adversities of different kinds and severity, and explores resilience both on the plane of abstract analysis and in the context of societal responses to mass surveillance. The article thus focuses upon surveillance as a special field for conceptual analysis and modelling of situations, and for evaluating contemporary developments in “surveillance societies”.

Keywords: democracy, privacy, public goods, resilience, security, surveillance

Suggested Citation

Raab, Charles D. and Jones, Richard and Szekely, Ivan and Szekely, Ivan, Surveillance and Resilience in Theory and Practice (August 17, 2015). Media and Communication, Vol 3, No 2 (Special Issue on Surveillance), Oct 2015 Forthcoming, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2645973

Charles D. Raab (Contact Author)

University of Edinburgh ( email )

Edinburgh, EH8 9LL
United Kingdom

Richard Jones

University of Edinburgh, School of Law ( email )

Old College
South Bridge
Edinburgh, Scotland EH8 9YL
United Kingdom

HOME PAGE: http://www.law.ed.ac.uk/people/dr-richard-jones

Ivan Szekely

OSA Archivum ( email )

Arany Janos u. 32.
Budapest, H-1051
Hungary
+36 1 327-3250 (Phone)
+36 1 327-3260 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://www.osaarchivum.org

Eotvos Karoly Policy Institute ( email )

Szentkiralyi u. 11.
Budapest, H-1088
Hungary

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